Director Darko Tresnjak has been appointed to serve as artistic director for The Old Globe Theatre’s summer Shakespeare Festival for 2004 in San Diego.

Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It, and The Two Noble Kinsmen will run in repertory at the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, June 25-Sept. 26, 2004.

The three Shakespeare stagings will be part of a five-play summer season to also include two other productions to be announced at a later date — to play in the Old Globe Theatre and in the Cassius Carter Centre Stage.

Presenting the shows in repertory marks a return — after over 20 years — to a tradition that began with founding member Craig Noel. "Producing and presenting an artistically significant Shakespeare Festival in repertory will allow the Globe to reconnect with our past, improve our service to the institution’s artistic mission, serve a larger local and regional audience, and expand our education and outreach programs," stated Globe executive director Louis G. Spisto.

Tresjnak, who directed the Globe’s 2002 staging of Pericles, will spearhead the annual Shakespeare Festival, casting a single company to perform the three plays in repertory in the outdoor venue. He will helm Antony and Cleopatra (June 25-Sept. 26) and The Two Noble Kinsmen (July 2-Sept. 24) while associate artistic director Karen Carpenter directs As You Like It (June 29-Sept. 25).

Another staging of Two Noble Kinsmen, as directed by Tresnjak, will soon open The Public Theatre's season in New York. The director has helmed works for theater, opera and dance. His stagings have been performed at venues across the country including Boston's Huntington Theatre, the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Connecticut's Goodspeed Opera House and Long Wharf Theatre. For more information on The Old Globe, visit www.theoldglobe.org.